Title X funding announcement is imminent

With help from Rachel Roubein, Victoria Colliver and Alice Miranda Ollstein

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QUICK FIX

— The Title X funding announcement is imminent, even as the White House and Republicans push for more abortion restrictions.

— Two congressional committees are calling hearings on vaccinations and measles, with outbreaks across at least 10 states.

— CMS unveiled a new pilot for how Medicare pays for emergency care, the latest initiative from the agency's innovation center.

A message from PhRMA:

Recent analysis shows some hospitals mark up medicine prices 700% or more. Even worse, half of nonprofit hospitals are marking prices up this much even though they already get a 50% discount from the federal 340B program. These hospital markups lead to higher costs for everyone — patients, employers and payers.

THANK GOODNESS IT'S FRIDAY PULSE — Where your author is preparing for the next "fake news" threat: actual fake news, written by artificial intelligence programs that can take a single sentence and convincingly write an entire article.

This issue of PULSE is written by a human being, we swear. 01101010 01101011 err what we meant to write was send tips to ddiamond@politico.com.

Driving the Day

TITLE X FUNDING ANNOUNCEMENT IS IMMINENT — The Trump administration is poised to announce hundreds of millions of dollars in Title X family-planning funding as soon as today, two individuals with knowledge tell PULSE.

Under the proposed version of the rule, HHS would steer more funding toward faith-based clinics and away from Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers. A final version of the Title X rule arrived at the White House only last Friday.

— FIRST IN PULSE: Democrats raise "serious concerns" that Title X review was rushed. Sens. Patty Murray, Kamala Harris and Maggie Hassan and House Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings warned the White House on Thursday to do more analysis on the rule before issuing it.

"The regulatory review process for this rule has been unconventional and nontransparent," the Democrats wrote, listing examples of how the administration didn't advertise the rule or reportedly denied requests for stakeholder meetings. "[W]e request that OIRA return the rule to HHS so that it can perform a comprehensive regulatory impact analysis and provide stakeholders additional opportunity for public comment." Read letter.

— Meanwhile: House GOP planning to force a vote on a bill that would make it a felony for a doctor to fail to immediately hospitalize an infant born after an “attempted abortion,” POLITICO's Alice Miranda Ollstein reports.

The bill, S. 311 (116), already failed to pass he GOP-controlled Senate last week, and it is certain to fail in the Democrat-led House as well, Alice writes. Democrats say the policy is symbolic since any harm to an infant is already a felony and that the bill unnecessarily restricts doctors from making case-by-case decisions about what is best for infants and mothers.

— President Trump on Thursday also hosted anti-abortion advocacy groups, which are working to rally administration support for the bill. The president has made courting these groups, as well as conservative evangelical organizations, a top priority in recent weeks.

"Yes, it's a politically smart move that he has made, but it's also the right thing to do," Marjorie Dannenfelser, the head of Susan B. Anthony List, told reporters on a call after the meeting.

CONGRESS WANTS TO KNOW: WHY ARE MEASLES OUTBREAKS ON THE RISE? — Two congressional committees on Thursday called hearings on anti-vaxxing and outbreaks, POLITICO's Sarah Owermohle reports.

The House Energy and Commerce’s Oversight and Investigations Committee will hold its hearing Feb. 27, and the Senate HELP Committee will hold another March 5.

— There's bipartisan support for these hearings. The chairs and ranking members of the E&C committee and its oversight subcommittee put out a joint statement connecting the trend of vaccination resistance with the recent outbreaks.

"The reemergence of vaccine-preventable diseases, including measles, presents a serious public health threat, especially for those who rely on ‘herd immunity,’" the congressmen wrote.

— How we got here: At least 10 states have seen measles outbreaks, particularly in areas with low vaccination rates. Washington state declared a public health emergency this month as more than 50 people, mostly children, were confirmed with the preventable virus, nearly all of them just across the river from Portland, Ore. More for Pros.

— The gist: CMS will pay participating ambulance teams for other services beyond transporting a Medicare patient to a hospital. They can get paid to take patients to other settings, like a primary care doctor’s office or urgent care clinic, or to provide care at the scene under the supervision of a qualified practitioner on site or connected via telehealth.

— EMS and ambulance associations were enthusiastic. “This is some of the most exciting news we’ve heard in emergency medical services in a long time,” Dia Gainor, executive director of the National Association of State EMS Officials, told Rachel..

— On patient safety: The head of CMMI, Adam Boehler, said the model aims to ensure patient safety in two ways: A provider will supervise on site treatment “at all times” and there will be an active system for monitoring the quality of care.

— The demo does raise some questions. PerShawn Martin, of the American Academy of Family Physicians, these include the decision-making process behind where to direct the patient and how ambulance staff will communicate in advance with non-hospital sites. More for Pros.

IN CONGRESS

LAMAR ALEXANDER, ELIZABETH WARREN applaud Alex Azar on mandatory model comments. The Senate HELP Committee chairman and the Massachusetts Democrat (who's bidding for president) say they're pleased that the HHS secretary suggested he supports the use of mandatory payment models, when appropriate.

While the CMS innovation center is testing a number of models, voluntary experiments alone aren't sufficient to accumulate data, Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Warren (D-Mass.) say.

"High-quality data is critical to CMMI’s ability to build the evidence of successful strategies to lower health care costs and improve the quality of care," the senators wrote to Azar. "Mandatory models, by enhancing the quality of data available to CMMI, can help ensure that bundled payment initiatives are only implemented widely if they are effective."

The letter cited statistics showing these authorization requirements affect about 40 percent of people with private insurance seeking this treatment. Read the letter here. Additional information sent to the insurers can be found here and here.

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About The Author : Dan Diamond

Dan Diamond is the author of "POLITICO Pulse," the must-read morning briefing on health care politics and policy. He's also the creator of PULSE CHECK, the popular podcast that features weekly conversations with politicians like Sen. Susan Collins, leaders like Kaiser Permanente’s Bernard J. Tyson and thinkers like Atul Gawande.

Along with his partner Rachana Pradhan, Diamond’s high-impact reporting resulted in the resignation of HHS Secretary Tom Price. Diamond also has done prize-winning reporting on hospitals’ community obligations and deep investigations into the Trump administration’s health care strategy, including its approach to vulnerable populations.

Before joining POLITICO, Diamond served as the Advisory Board Company’s senior director of news and communications. He also covered health care policy, business, and strategy for FORBES. His work has appeared at Vox, Kaiser Health News and other publications.

Diamond is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and has appeared to discuss health care, politics, and policy on NPR's "All Things Considered" and "Fresh Air," the NBC Nightly News, the BBC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, the Dan Patrick Show, and other programs. Diamond has been a Yale University Poynter fellow and a fellow of the Association of Health Care Journalists.